Tracking utility-scale solar around the globe with Patrick Donnelly

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by Patrick Donnelly

Amongst the many site-based impacts of utility-scale solar facilities is the amount of terrain required to be graded, and how severe such grading needs to be. The classic solar facilities like those seen at Kramer Junction, California, required a completely clean scrape- grading the entire site to a 0% grade, rendering it essentially a parking lot without the asphalt. Newer facilities such as the infamous Ivanpah* SEGS purport to be an alternative, a kinder, gentler utility-scale solar facility, with far less grading than earlier designs. But does it matter?

Genesis, a 250MW nameplate capacity facility sited on 1,950 acres of Public Land, is certainly the most heavy-handed of the three when it comes to grading. Parabolic troughs, by the very nature of their technology, require extremely flat land. They concentrate sunlight in trough-shaped mirrors, focusing on a central clear glass tube which is full of a thermal transfer medium, usually oil. This medium is then brought to a conventional heat engine, where (as with almost every other form of energy production known to man, except wind and photovoltaics) it is used to heat water, which boils into steam, which spins a turbine, thus generating electricity. The length of the troughs and tubes, and their rather sensitive alignment, means that almost perfectly flat ground is required for the facilities.

Water diversion scheme for Genesis Solar Power Project, as depicted in the EIS.

Genesis, built in the Chuckwalla Valley outside of Desert Center, CA, required substantial alteration of local hydrology. The entire 1,950 acre site was graded, resulting in 1,000,000 cubic yards of earth being moved, and substantially altering the function of 90 acres of ephemeral washes (90 acres of washes means literally hundreds or maybe even thousands of washes, given their linear nature and low acreage). Water from all washes crossing the site was diverted in massive engineered drainage channels, which send the water across the site and downslope in concentrated waterways. This causes downstream peak flow rates to increase dramatically, in some cases by as much as 300%, which increases downslope erosion, and potentially will “dry out” certain areas that are no longer receiving sheet flow. In order to attempt to slow down outgoing storm water, NextEra proposed to utilize hydraulic energy dissapators and downstream riprap splash pads. BLM and CEC were skeptical enough of the success of this plan that they required ongoing downstream monitoring for erosion and altered sediment loads, and revision of mitigation plans as needed.

There is some irony in the amount of time and effort spent discussing storm water diversion on this site in the EIS, given what happened in Summer of 2012. A powerful desert rainstorm, certainly not uncommon in the area, dropped 3.5” of water on the site in less than six hours, causing a massive flash flood. The project, which was still under construction at the time, experienced about $5 million in damages, as flood waters raced across the actual project site, breeching the flood channels and destroying solar panels. Afterwards, it was found that the channels silted up to the point where they could not accept water, hence the breech. According to NextEra, the channels and other flood control structures were not completely finished in their construction. But it was certainly a potent reminder that the desert’s hydrological patterns cannot be easily altered.

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System

An example of a concentrating solar power tower facility, Gemasolar, Sevilla province, Spain

More has been written about Ivanpah than I really care to reiterate here, so I’ll justgiveyoua fewlinks. It is a concentrating solar power tower facility, wherein sunlight is reflected from dispersed heliostats (mirrors on modular bases) to a central, tall tower, which contains a steam engine generating power just like at Genesis.

Ivanpah’s unique design means that its footprint is substantially different than that of Genesis. The heliostats’ sole function is to focus sunlight on the power tower, tracking the sun throughout the day to maximize the amount of reflected light. Given that there are 214,000 heliostats, each individual heliostat is relatively unimportant to the overall project. As such, rather than grading off the entire 3,500 acre area which is covered by heliostats, BrightSource is generally maintaining the hydrographic profile of the area underneath the heliostats, grading and diverting water only around the power blocks, which is where the power towers are located. Grading would result in the moving of about 250,000 cubic yards of fill, or one quarter as much as Genesis, spread over an area two times as large, which yields, by this particular measurement, a grading intensity one eighth as much as that of Genesis. Additionally, however, there were concentring rings of heliostat access roads graded, adding somewhat to the hydrological impacts of the project.

In the plans for reduced grading, BrightSource purports to adhere to the principles of Low Impact Design (LID). LID is a set of principles intended to guide development such that it minimizes its impact on water resources, for instance by promoting natural flow regimes, by promoting groundwater recharge, and other virtuous impacts. And indeed, compared to a wholesale grading of all 3,500 acres, they have minimized the impact of their design. But the CEC/BLM staff who prepared the EIS are skeptical of the project’s success in this regard: “Even with these LID methods employed, project development would likely have effects that result in reduced storm water infiltration and increased runoff,”. And indeed, the EIS reveals substantial changes to the hydrology during peak flow events: a 10-year storm event would see a 3% increase in peak flow volume after construction, with a 16% increase in maximum water velocity; while a 100-year storm event would see a 4.5% increase in peak flow volume, with a very significant 44% increase in maximum water velocity.

Desert Sunlight Solar Farm

Desert Sunlight is a 550MW nameplate capacity photovoltaic plant, sited on 4,144 acres of Public Lands, also in the Chuckwalla Valley, in the same vicinity as Solar Genesis. Photovoltaics, not requiring a heat transfer medium or other centralized energy production facilities, are much more flexible in their deployment. They can be mounted on steep rooftops, undulating terrain, or even insanely steep slopes. As a result, Desert Sunlight utilized what might be referred to as a selective grading system.

Grading schematic for Desert Sunlight, from the EIS. Blue shaded areas outlined in dark solid black are Type 1; those outlined in red are Type 2; and the remainder of the area within the hashed-line project boundary is Type 3. Areas outlined in green are proposed stormwater retention basins.

Type 1 grading, traditional cut-and-fill leveling off of the ground, occurred on 31% of the site. They claim that they are using an “isolated cut/fill and roll” grading method (Type 2), which they also refer to as “micrograding,” on about 9% of the site; these areas retain their basic hydrographic form. And on the remainder of the site, they used a novel type of grading they call “disc and roll,” (Type 3) wherein conventional farming equipment is used to mulch vegetation and compact the mulch and churned up soils into a uniformly flat surface. These non-conventional grading plans mean that they reduced their cut-and-fill amount from 1,350,000 cubic yards to 755,000 cubic yards, an almost 45% reduction. (It should be noted that some amount of searching reveals no previous instances of “disc and roll” grading in any previous environmental review documents for any project of any kind; nor is there any mention of this sort of grading via google searches.)

The exact relationship between these “lighter impact” grading techniques and the flow of water across the project site is unclear from the EIS. The majority of the heavy Type 1 grading occurs at the northwest corner of the project site, the upslope side, where a number of ephemeral washes come into the site. These washes actually flow through the site, but a series of retention basins is to be built in various locations across the site, to slow down incoming water and reduce flow volumes and speeds. However, behind those retention basins lies the area most heavily graded, which is meant to only support sheet flow, not concentrated flow as occurs in a wash. Downslope from this area is the portion of the site that is lightly graded, where presumably the natural drainage structure will remain intact. The question then, is will the retention basins be enough to stop water from concentrating in the washes which flow across the site? The modeling in the EIS shows nominal increases to peak flow volume and velocity, less than was revealed in the Ivanpah EIS. But, as was revealed in the Genesis flood, the desert can behave in unexpected ways. Additionally, the analysis as to adverse impacts to downstream riparian communities is far less rigorous in the Desert Sunlight EIS, as they seem to anticipate no downstream impacts. This seems highly unlikely, given the still significant alteration of flow regimes that the Desert Sunlight grading plan entails.

The Real Question

In my mind, the real question is: so what? I’ve been analyzing EIS’s like those referenced above for months, trying to determine if there is a significant difference in the level of on-the-ground impacts between them. Sure, Genesis is a completely clean scrape, leaving nothing of the native flora or fauna or habitat intact. But is Ivanpah any better? Is it any better to leave the bottom 18″ of plants on the ground, in a vain attempt to maintain current hydrological flow patterns? Or is that simply paying lip service to maintaining ecological function in a site that will be horrifically degraded for centuries to come? Will Desert Sunlight’s “selective grading” yield a site that is better able to recover in fifty years, when those photovoltaic panels are so pathetically obsolete that they aren’t even worth recovering for scrap? I’m not even really sure how to answer this question yet (I’m just not there yet in my research). I’ve heard opinions that Ivanpah might have a substantially smaller long-term ecological footprint, as compared with a clean scrape like Genesis. I’ve also heard opinions that it’s really not even worth examining if one is “less bad” than another, in terms of impact, because ultimately it’s like comparing a gut shot to a head shot- they’ll both kill you. So, in parting, I’ll leave you with a video posted by this blog’s illustrious host, Chris Clarke. It shows Ivanpah’s “light on the land” grading in action.

*I’ve decided that from now on, I’ll always refer to Ivanpah as infamous. Or perhaps ignominious.

by Patrick Donnelly

Spanish utility-scale solar developers apparently have little concern for the slopes upon which they build photovoltaic plants, resulting in absolutely insane, erosion-causing, likely self-endangering developments such as this one.

A utility-scale solar facility in Spain built on an incredibly severe grade.

American utility-scale solar developments have a variety of laws governing their permitting, chief amongst them our beloved National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA), which requires rigorous environmental impact assessment on all proposals involving the federal government in any way. California, too has the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), passed just a few months after NEPA, which gives a similar level of scrutiny to state-only projects, as well as enhancing the level of NEPA’s review in many cases.

One of the chief areas of impacts examined under NEPA/CEQA is impacts to soil resources and hydrology. Because building a facility like the one above will inevitably cause terrible erosion, by denuding the slopes of the vegetation which hold down their soil, utility-scale solar developers in California have been forced to limit the areas they can build to relatively flat places. For example, the Solar PEIS, BLM’s programmatic evaluation of solar on Public Lands in the southwest, excluded all areas with slopes greater than 5% from consideration for development.

In practice, developers need even flatter areas. Ivanpah SEGS, which was able to built on a “steeper” slope of 1.7%, because it didn’t require wholesale grading of the site, is probably amongst the steeper that will ever be built in the U.S. [Link to EIS from BLM]. BLM’s own regs state that photovoltaics, like the Spanish sites pictured here, need to be sited at a 3% grade or less.

Water diversion scheme for Genesis Solar Power Project, as depicted in the EIS.

The alternative is to dramatically alter the native hydrology, as occurred with the Genesis Solar Power Project, a 250MW parabolic trough project sited near Desert Center, CA. [Link to the EIS from BLM; info from CEC; info from NREL.] In order to properly set up the troughs, they needed to grade the entire 1,950 acre site to a 1% or less grade, requiring the movement of over a million cubic yards of fill (picture a 1500 mile long convoy of standard sized dump trucks). But this of course, dramatically altered the local hydrology: to prevent a catastrophic flood, they had to build massive water diversion ditches, a schematic of which can be seen here. And still, during construction Genesis experienced what can only be described as a catastrophic flood.

Spain’s environmental review process, on the other hand, is much more rudimentary. One of the things I’m focusing on this summer is getting my hands on Spanish EIS’s for utility-scale solar plants here, to compare the way they assess impacts, and how that may inform whether or not a plant gets built. Clearly, impacts to hydrology were not thoroughly considered with these facilities. All the pictures come from a paper by Prof. Matías Mérida at the University of Málaga, in which he develops a typology of impacts from photovoltaic plants. I’ll write more about his typology in a future post. You can see the original Spanish version here [PDF, with pictures] or a crudely Google Translate-translated English version here [PDF, no pictures]. (Even so, Google Translate still seems like magic to me.) Unfortunately, I do not have a good source yet for which specific solar facilities these shots come from in Spain- I’m currently in correspondence with Prof. Mérida about it and will update this post when I find out. Still, just gaze in wonder, and be grateful that this is one particular problem that utility-scale solar watchers in the U.S. don’t have to contend with.

by Patrick Donnelly

Hello! Welcome to my new blog, “Miracle or Mirage? Tracking utility-scale solar around the globe.” This post is an introduction to my work. Please keep an eye on this space, as I’ll be updating frequently over the next few months with notes from the field.

Large-scale solar energy facilities have been amongst the most visible incarnations of proposed solutions to the problem of global climate change. Beginning in the middle part of the 2000’s, a veritable gold rush of solar development began, as energy companies sought to cash in on lavish state subsidies while benefiting from legislation which mandated renewable energy production. As a result, landscapes in remote areas have been transformed, turning formerly pastoral areas or those largely unused by humans into industrialized energy production zones.

For most people who have found this blog, this is an old story. However many Americans are unaware that the current utility-scale solar boom in the desert Southwest is not unique: Spain, for example, has a higher level of deployment both on per-capita and absolute bases. And indeed, they have experienced significant boom-and-bust cycles, as governmental market supports dissolved in the face of economic uncertainty. Utility-scale solar has also been deployed in Israel, Germany, South Africa, Morocco, India, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are some common threads:

In almost all cases, there have been significant government subsidies, legislative mandates, and market supports to promote utility-scale solar. Frequently these will also have deadlines for commencing production, meaning there is a rush for development.

As a result of this rush to meet incentive deadlines, environmental review processes have often been expedited and/or forgone altogether.

By the very nature of these facilities, their sheer size and internal intensity of development, land use patterns have changed. In some places, notably America and Morocco, this has meant development on previously undisturbed, largely “unused” areas. In other places, notably Spain and South Africa, this has meant displacement of agriculture.

None of this is to cast an absolute value judgement on utility-scale solar projects. There are instances of “good” utility-scale solar projects, with adequate environmental review processes, appropriate siting, and thoroughly mitigated (or negligible) environmental impacts; just as there are instances of “bad” projects, with hurried and cursory environmental reviews, poor siting, and severe and unmitigatable environmental impacts.

For my research summer, I have been awarded a Haas Scholars Research Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley, to investigate policy-making processes and implementation of utility-scale solar projects in the United States, Spain, and Morocco. My goal is to conduct a comparative analysis of Spanish and U.S. policy, finding what similarities exist, and to extract some “lessons learned” from the Spanish experience, as their deployment of utility-scale solar has been several years ahead that in the United States. To read my abstract, you can click here [PDF].

In this space, I’ll be regularly posting portions of my field notes. This could be photos or descriptions from site visits to facilities in Spain, Morocco, and California; snippets from interviews with policy-makers or community members; particularly interesting tidbits from Environmental Impact Statements or solar-enabling legislation; or really anything else that comes down the pike as my investigations unfold.

With my work this summer, I hope to draw a line in the sand. Utility-scale solar, if deployed in the correct way, could be a key facet of humanity’s response to the negative climate impacts of our energy consumption. However, as it currently stands, it appears in many ways to be a utility-scale boondoggle: sucking down government subsidies and fundamentally altering local environments, while ultimately showing negligible benefits to overall energy production patterns. Sensible policy reforms could promote sensible utility-scale solar deployment.

And so, we’re off! I’m writing this post from a small apartment where I’m currently staying in Sevilla, in the south of Spain. I’ll spend this week trying to track down EIS’s and talking to people in the towns near the Solúcar Platform (depicted above). Please feel free to contact me either through this blog, or via email (donnellyshores AT berkeley DOT edu)- I’d love to hear from others who share my interest and passion in this topic. Until then… Saludos!